The recent transporting of immigrants and "refugees" crossing the border to northern cities has made the entire country "the border" and increasingly even progressive liberal Democrats are getting on board with the reality (most recently Fetterman made the point) that our country simply is not prepared to handle the current numbers of immigrants regardless of what numbers someone chooses to quote.
Let's not argue numbers, let figure out a way to arrive at the right number of immigrants that can remain. Since we cannot support the current number of immigrants admitted through our normal immigration process, we will need to determine which ones to deport. Perhaps we can help them find a country in need of immediate immigration, otherwise they should be sent home.
The number of immigrants the country can absorb at one time depends on the state of the economy, the background of the immigrants (health, education, skills, age, etc.), the location in which they settle (availability of jobs, housing, and social services), and various other factors (like the capacity of the local school system).
Studies on the positive impact of legal immigration highlight how controlled immigration is a win win... a win for the country and a win for the immigrants. But similar studies show the current immigration is unsustainable.
So, label the current situation in any manner one wishes, the truth is we are not following our normal immigration criteria or historical refugee criteria and as a result our system cannot support the numbers of immigrants entering the country and will have to arrive at a system to deport those we cannot help.
By undermining our immigration system, we have created the problems that system was intended to prevent. And the effects of that are increasingly obvious to even the most progressive of Americans, who may opt for different responses, but admit the reality of the problem.
In other words, absent the discipline embedded in our legal immigration process, we have created a mess. The people entering this country are undermining our social safety nets by straining them to the point of breaking. This impacts both immigrants and citizens (like closing schools in NYC to house immigrants in them). And frankly under those circumstances, I favor citizens getting preferred access to our social services and safety net.
Presently, our federal government is facing a $1.6 trillion dollar deficit (and a federal debt in the mid $30 trillion range). My state is facing an estimated $68 billion deficit in the near future. And many cities are facing deficits like San Francisco are facing hundreds of millions in debt just to fund the school system, much less other services. The social safety net is broken and given the declining purchasing power of most Americans; they are not prepared to pay more taxes. So, state like mine, California, are needing to cut government spending and I think residents will rebel if those cuts come at their expense before cutting immigrant services.
And so, the question becomes what to do with people that are in our country, who have failed to go through the legal immigration process, which our country cannot afford to support with our crumbling social safety net. The answer is pretty clear, we must deport them, if we can't support them.
No doubt we need more legal immigration than our current quotas and we need specific skills to replace an aging population. So perhaps, we need to a system that can take advantage of the immigrants that are here, while deporting those that we cannot support.
Such a system should start at ground level and work up to the federal level, not the opposite way around. Knowing we cannot support immigrants that cannot support themselves, it is equally unfair to ask workers to compete with immigrants who must work (even for less than the prevailing wage) or be deported.
So, it becomes clear we need to begin deporting people in numbers close to those that took place under Obama and Biden during his first term. The question becomes, how we determine which people should be deported and perhaps which people can be allowed to remain?
Such a decision should involve a combined effort of local, state and federal government agencies. If a municipal government believes they can offer the social services, education, housing, and jobs needed for both immigrants (without green cards) and refugees living in their community, then let it be, and give those immigrants and refugees a temporary permit to reside and work in that community only.
If a state, believes it can support immigrants without federal funding without placing additional burdens on municipalities, then provide them the same ability.
ICE should step in and deport those illegal immigrants or refugees that no municipality or state is prepared to fund the needed social services, education, housing, etc. required to support the immigrants. Clearly, those with valued skills will likely be ones that municipalities and states identify and desire to retain and criminals and gang members likely to be the first to be deported.
Simply said, we can argue ideology but at this point when a nation has exhausted its public funding, it must care for its own citizens first and can only provide for others to the extent a surplus of funding, housing and jobs can be found (the latter being preferred).
To the extent, immigrants and refugees don't compete for social funding, housing, and jobs, pragmatically it should work like our legal immigration... win win.
Let's give immigrants and refugees a permit and start taxing them. Those unable to secure a permit from a municipality or state, should be identified to ICE and put on a deportation or relocation list.
A well-funded an active ICE can sort out the group to send home and individuals that might be offered permits in other cities or states. But after a defined period of time, if there are no "takers", the person will be deported.
Not going through the proper channels should have consequences. In this instance, it means a city or state must give you permission to reside there or you are deported. Going through legal immigration means you are not required to secure a "local or state permit", you have a national "green card".
